Hey Dad! star Robert Hughes at The Downing Centre District Court in Sydney. Credit:Janie Barrett

The 65-year-old sat shaking his head and crying in the dock as the jury declared its verdict. He appeared to be saying ‘‘no, no, no’’ over and over. He then closed his eyes in anguish. Just as the jury left, he sprang to his feet, leaned out of the dock and shouted, ‘‘I am innocent!’’ The jury agreed that between 1983 and 1991, the actor molested three girls aged between six or seven and 15. The remaining charges relate to two other victims.

The trial heard that in the case of two girls, Hughes came into the rooms where they were sleeping and sexually assaulted them as they lay terrified in bed. One recalled Hughes telling her ‘‘good girl ... here’s your teddy’’, before leaving the room. The other girl said the actor licked her face before departing.

Another alleged victim recalled a trip to Manly in which Mr Hughes allegedly forced her to swim through his legs while he exposed himself, and then trapped her by closing his legs, preventing her from resurfacing.

The fourth victim was aged 15 when she was indecently assaulted by Hughes, who also attempted to maintain a relationship with her, sending her long-stemmed roses on her 16th birthday and telling her ‘‘I want you to find a place for us to go so we can have sex because I’m too old to be doing it in the bush’’.